Review of 'Colossians' By Christopher R. Seitz. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2014. Pp. 217. Cloth, $29.95; eBook, $29.95.

Abstract

Without disallowing historical and critical engagement with the text, the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible asks contributors to interpret scripture theologically in line with the Nicene creed. As a result, most of its contributors are theologians. Seitz, somewhat incongruously, is a biblical (OT) scholar who takes a "canonical" (following Childs) rather than a strictly "theological interpretation of scripture" approach. Thus, he favors Paul as author on the basis that Colossians was part of a unified Pauline letter collection that circulated in the first century (following Trobisch) and the personal elements in Col. 4. Less probable are the assertions that there was no unified body of teaching which can be termed the "Colossian heresy," and that the Jewish scriptures, as Paul's "frame of reference," are "far more decisive" for exegesis than the historical context in the Lycus Valley.